


Dont't touch my Guide!

by SilentCookie



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Don't copy to another site, Fluff, Guide Gray, Guide!Gray, Hurt!Natsu, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nothing serious, Protective Gray Fullbuster, Protective Natsu Dragneel, Protectiveness, Sentinel Natsu, Sentinel!Natsu, Sentinel/Guide, Spirit Animals, Translation, Translation Available, asshole ocs, caring Gray, hurt Natsu, translation from german
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 06:19:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18733330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentCookie/pseuds/SilentCookie
Summary: Sentinel/Guide AU (you don't need to know it in order to understand it).Natsu is a Sentinel and in urgent need of a Guide, but to find someone who'd match him isn't that easy. Gray on the other hand is worried because of the strange behaviour of his friend.[A finished OneShot, but maybe I'll make a series out of this in the future]





	Dont't touch my Guide!

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Hände weg von meinem Guide!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18450935) by [SilentCookie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentCookie/pseuds/SilentCookie). 



> Hey guys :D  
> This was my first attempt at a Sentinel/Guide AU and I think it turned out okay... ^^' If you never heard of this type of AU and are hesistant to read this fic: don't worry, all the basics you need to know in order to understand it are explained within the fic (I think...). In short, Sentinel/Guide AUs always have slightly different rules how everything works, depending on the fic and author, but basically Sentinels have enhanced senses that make them in a way superior to normal humans, but they are also in risk to become overwhelmed by them and zoning out. Guides have the ability to help Sentinels with that and often have empathic abilities, the strengh varies from fic to fic.
> 
> Before I've written this, I read a few other Sentinel/Guide fics, but they were always set in the "normal world". That resulted in the fact that it didn't occur to me, that in a world with magic there probably wouldn't be as much predjudices on the basis of not understanding the abilities and therefore being afraid of them... Please just humour me here for the sake of the plot ^^'
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading and if you have any questions towards the Seninel/Guide Universes as a whole or just about this fic or whatever, you're welcome to ask in the comments and I do my best to answer them ^^
> 
> On another note: As always with my fics in english, the original german version was posted on my account on fanfiktion.de (username: silent cookie), but the german version is also posted here on ao3. English isn't my first language and I'm sure there are some errors in here (grammatical or otherwise), feel free to correct anything you notice, I appreciate it :)

Darkness. That was all he was aware of when he came to. That, and the typical smell of wet wood and plants.

Out of all his senses his tactile sense came back first and he shuddered slightly when he became aware of the wet clothes that stuck to his body. He was lying on an oddly soft-hard ground, his fingers brushed over a rough substance. Branches, leaves and dirt. He must be lying on a forest floor.

This was also confirmed by the smells of plants which reached his nostrils and were mixed with the ones of forest animals.

A rustling noise reached his ears as well as the happy chirping from various birds.

With a disgusted face he spat out a bit of dirt that got in his mouth and bothered him now that his sense of taste had returned.

His eyesight came back last and he had to narrow his eyes to slits to avoid being blinded by the – for him way too bright – light of the late afternoon. Carefully he made another attempt to open his eyes as painless as possible, and this time he managed to get used to the brightness.

Groaning, Natsu sat up and winced slightly at the sharp pain in his shoulder. He looked down at it in confusion and then around. Like his senses had already told him he was in the middle of a forest. The question was only: Why?

Frowning, he tried to remember what happend.

Oh, right, he was being on a solo mission, should collect some special magical plants which were the spitting image of a poisonous plant species that also grew here and could only be distinguished by their slightly different scents. He had been concentrating on his sense of smell way too much and thereby triggered the zoning out. At that time he must have fallen down the small hill he was now sitting in front of and must have landed on his shoulder unfortunately.

Dammit, this was now his fifth time zoning out within four weeks! And considering the position of the sun he must have been lying here for a few hours – long enough to get completely soaked by the rain.

Mad at himself, Natsu finally stood up and surrounded himself with his flames for a few seconds and dried his clothes that way.

For a moment he thought about what to do now. He still had a few hours until the sun would set, long enough to finish his mission and get the plants to his client. After one night in the inn he already could go back to the guild.

His immediate plans were clear to him but seen in the medium to long run that wasn’t the case. If it went on like that with his zoning out it would become dangerous for him.

Zoning out was the only big disadvantage of the life as a Sentinel and by now it really annoyed him. It was triggered by overwhelming one of his senses so that it overpowered the others and therefore effectively shut them off, so in the end it had a similar effect like unconsciousness. Just with open eyes and frozen mid-motion.

Sometimes one would land on the ground and lie there like a normal unconscious guy but often one would also just stand there unmoving, which could freak people out who weren’t accustomed with Sentinels and them zoning out.

The only really effective countermeasure was to team up with a Guide, like their ancestors did. In the past, Sentinels were the guardians of their tribe, they protected their own and were chosen because of their hyper acute senses. At their side they had Guides who supported, looked out for and helped them with their hypersensitivity. Sentinels and Guides were forgotten for a long time, because in most cases the abilities of the people who possessed the corresponding genes were sleeping and therefore weren’t coming out in the open – it needs special circumstances to awake as a Sentinel or Guide – but by now the society was aware of their existence again.

Natsu himself had hardly had problems with zoning out so far, because he awakened as a Sentinel when he was a little kid and Igneel helped him to learn how to control his senses and pulled him out of it if necessary. And after Igneel went missing, Natsu could contain his senses mostly and had them under control. Growing up, him zoning out was so rare that he had only to deal with them two to three times in a year and it always announced itself a little bit beforehand, so he could pull himself out of it by himself or at least go and hide in a safe place.

But since a few weeks his senses were acting up, he had problems controlling them and it’s getting worse, so he was zoning out more and more.

On top of that you could never know when it would stop again. Depending on his abilities and how deep one is zoning out, a Guide could pull a Sentinel out within a few minutes to an hour – or even better, prevent Sentinels from zoning out with their presence before it could even start. But if a Sentinel was on his own, it could take them multiple hours, sometimes even days, to awake from their zoning out.

That’s why zoning out could be quite dangerous, depending on the situation the Sentinel is in at the moment. And as a magician, Natsu really couldn’t afford that.

If he was lucky, his senses would calm down soon, otherwise he would need a Guide. The problem was only, that his work often wasn’t really safe and if he wanted to continue with it, he would need someone who was nearly as strong as him or even stronger. And such strong Guides aren’t exactly easy to find. Apart from that, he doubted that he could trust an obscure Guide he didn’t really know enough to entrust them with his life – because if he was zoning out during a mission it would be about nothing less.

Until he would find his Guide by a miracle or his senses calming down, he’d have to take it easy in the future.

~~~ 

Gray emptied his glass of ice-cold beer in few big gulps and thumped it down on the bar again. He was grateful that Mira didn’t ask what was wrong, instead just put a new glass down in front of him. He just wasn’t in the mood to talk to somebody at the moment.

After he awakened because of the episode with Deliora, he carefully kept his status as a Guide a secret and his mind-shields up, so that even other Sentinels or Guides couldn’t recognise him as one of the letter. He just didn’t have the nerve to grapple with government officials, who would want to pair him up with some strange Sentinels. Especially as said government-Sentinels expected from their Guides to do their biddings without a protest.

After the existence of Sentinels and Guides became common currency again 25 years ago, the government started researching them and established institutes to help Sentinels and Guides, but also to keep an eye on them.

If they registered in a Sentinel/Guide-Centre, shortened: SGCs or SG-Centres, they were under their protection and could get help there for these topics any time. There were special courses for both parties to learn how to deal with their abilities, unbound Sentinels who were zoning out could get pulled out by trained Guides and one could try to find their partner with the help of the SGCs.

He himself never had registered in a SG-Centre, had taught himself how to deal with his abilities over the years since his awakening as a Guide after the death of his parents, because he didn’t want to attract attention. But now the fat was in the fire.

Almost three weeks ago, after a mission in Crocus, he had helped a new awoken Sentinel-girl who was zoning out. Normally he would’ve just called the SG-Centre for help, but because they were in an empty back alley he’d thought the coast was clear for just quickly doing it himself.

He’d thought wrong. While he’d pulled the girl out from her zoning out, he’d been watched by a patrolling soldier, which meant the end of his peaceful days.

Since then he was getting letters or lacrima-messages with a request to team up with a government-Sentinel and serve the government as a mage-Guide all the time, as compensation he would of course be well-paid. Unfortunately, Gray had absolutely no interest in leaving Fairy Tail and subordinating himself to some government lap dog of a Sentinel. Because where in normal Sentinel/Guide relationships both parties were absolutely equal and on both sides it was a give-and-take, government Sentinels often had a different attitude, so the Guide would end as nothing more than a servant of the Sentinel. But his lack of interest didn’t seem to interest the government officials in charge, so they continued to harass him.

And if that wasn’t enough, he was increasingly worried about Natsu. Not that he would admit that out loud. But Natsu has always been important to him and he knew that it was the same the other way around, even if it made the opposite impression for others.

For a little over a month he was behaving strangely. It started with him refusing to join in bigger missions and he himself only taking ridiculous easy ones. At first, Gray had thought that Natsu had caught a cold or something and that he took a backseat because of that, but with time it wasn’t getting better but worse. The only time he had tagged along a team-mission, he was forced by Erza, and Gray had never seen Natsu so out of it. The others hadn’t noticed anything, Natsu had hidden it well, but with his empathy-ability as a Guide it had got Gray’s attention quickly. After this mission, Natsu hadn’t been on an even a little bit dangerous one and on top of that he’d shown his face less and less in the guild as well as increasingly shorter. If he was there, he mostly behaved the same way as always, but all this just wasn’t like Natsu.

That Natsu’s odd behaviour seemingly was only suspicious for him didn’t make it any better either. Every other guild member he’d talked to hardly seemed to notice this – maybe except for his latest preference of missions. But everyone only told him that Natsu just needed a little break and he shouldn’t worry so much as long as he would still come to the guild.

But this didn’t help much to lessen his concern. Did the situation only seem to him to be more extreme than it was because he was a Guide? But even if he exaggerated the part with Natsu’s absence because of his feelings, the part with the missions alone justified it to worry about it.

He stole a glance at Natsu, who once again sat in the guild for a change and chatted with Wendy, when Gray made a decision.

He waited for a while for Wendy to stand up and go over to the table of Levy and Lucy, and then made his way over to Natsu to finally confront him.

~~~ 

Natsu looked up in surprise as Gray sat down at his table. He’d heard him coming, but since they hadn’t talked for a while he’d expected him to go past him to one of the next tables.

“Hey,” he said, looking at Gray questioningly. The less he had to talk, the better. The guild has been loud enough for him lately and he was not keen to add any noise himself.

“Hey yourself,” Gray snorted after that warm welcome from Natsu, but it was clearly lacking the usual bite. The look he gave Natsu was unusually gentle... worried. “How are you?”

At this question, Natsu forced himself to laugh. “Haha, why do you ask, Ice Princess? Do you want to fight? Then come on, I’ll wipe the floor with you!”

But unlike usual, Gray didn’t respond to his provocation, Natsu noted alarmingly. “Stop this crap. I don’t want to fight. I want to know how you are.”

“Since when do you care? But if you really want to know: I’m fine!” grinned Natsu as convincingly as possible. But Gray just raised his eyebrow unimpressed, he didn’t believe him one bit.

“Okay, fine. I just didn’t feel very well lately. Nothing serious, just worn out and concentration problems, no reason to worry,” tried Natsu to accommodate him a bit, hoping that he would eat it up.

Unlike he had hoped, his senses haven’t settled down in the last month and he was afraid a Guide really would be his only solution. But to find a right Guide for him was easier said than done. And it seemed like there also wasn’t a Guide in the immediate vicinity who’d be suitable as a partner for his missions, aside from the fact that he would prefer to work with _his _Guide.__

____

Because Sentinels and Guides could in fact work with each other any time, but there were rumours that each Sentinel had a specific Guide who belonged to them – and only to them. Like by fate predestined partners, who shared an especially strong bond, protected each other instinctively and amplifying each other’s abilities as soon as they’d have bonded. It doesn’t matter if it was a platonic or a sexual relationship (even if the latter are considered to be especially successful and in most cases it resulted in it anyway because of the strong emotional bond between the partners), but once bonded you couldn’t back out of it anymore, which is why Sentinels and Guides normally only did this step if it was with their destined partner. 

____

By now he even talked himself into scouting registered Guides to see if somebody was there who could suit him – even if they knew nothing about that, he had snucked into the next best SG-Centre secretly to look through the lists. He himself had never registered and always kept his status as Sentinel hidden, nobody knew of it. He had never liked the SGCs much because of their strong government influence and he didn’t want to deal with annoying government officials, who would want to recruit him, or to deal with the prejudices against Sentinels. 

____

Because of their potential to zone out, they were considered on the one hand as fragile and in great need of help, but simultaneously the government had cast an eye on them because of their special senses and tried to recruit everyone of them as fighter or lab employee who they could (Natsu even was pretty sure that that was the real reason why the SG-Centres were founded and that the part about the help and support was just a cover). 

____

Furthermore, there were incidents of Sentinels who had run berserk because they were violently separated from their Guide. After this it was decided, that the bond between a Sentinel and a Guide was to protected legally at all costs, but because of the amok incidents there were many who were afraid of the “feral” Sentinels. To make things worse, some Sentinels did pursue a criminal career or were forced by criminals to work for them, so the fears weren’t entirely unjustified. 

____

While the abilities of the Sentinels were a double-edged sword and therefore the opinions on them were vastly different, people were considerably more at ease with Guides. It was true that they had some empathetic abilities with which they could sense the emotions of the people around them and manipulate them a little, but in the end their abilities only really had an effect on Sentinels, so they didn’t constitute a big threat. But it wasn’t that uncommon that Guides would be hold hostage to blackmail Sentinels to work for them, so they too enjoyed special legal protection. 

____

But Natsu didn’t have to think about pros and cons of a Sentinel/Guide bond if he didn’t find an at least halfway compatible partner for himself. So far he wasn’t successful by any means and he had examined every registered Guide in the surrounding area, which meant that his Guide either lived far away from him or that he wasn’t registered like himself. 

____

His hands were tied, but there was no point in worrying his friends. That’s why he really hoped that Gray would accept his excuse about feeling worn out and having concentration problems and would just drop the subject. 

____

But after his flimsy explanation Gray just looked at him with an expression that clearly said he wasn’t buying it. 

____

“For a whole month?” he continued their conversation. “Come on, Natsu, as if. That just isn’t you. It’s not just that you hardly go on any missions anymore, let alone even a little bit dangerous ones, you also are in the guild less and less. You know that you can talk to me or one of the others anytime, right?” 

____

At these words, Natsus heart clenched a bit. It was obvious that Gray was worried. He thought he’d done a good job in hiding his problems, but his efforts clearly weren’t enough for Gray. 

____

“I know, thank you, but...,” he just wanted to end the conversation, when something in Gray’s pocket caught his eye. “What’s that?” 

____

Slightly confused because of the sudden change of topic, Gray followed Natsu’s line of sight to his trouser pocket, where a piece of paper stuck out. 

____

Now it was Gray’s turn to make excuses. “Nothing important...,” he said and pushed the slightly crumpled-up paper quickly deeper in his pocket. 

____

But Natsu didn’t buy his excuses any more than the other way round, they knew each other too well. Before Gray could stop him, he had leant towards him, had pulled out the paper and straightened it. It was a letter. 

____

He only needed seconds to skim the content and to understand what it was about. A recruiting proposition for Guides! 

____

Natsu’s eyes became big, staring at the letter in his hand and then at Gray. If Gray was a Guide... That could be the solution to his problems! He wasn’t quite sure if they were compatible enough for a bond, but for the time being, it would be enough if Gray would just have an eye on him during missions. And trusting him, he did anyway. 

____

Gray on the other hand looked like he wanted to bolt any moment or to scream at Natsu. A mixture of shock, anger, discomfort, worry and tense anticipation showed on his face. 

____

“You... You’re a Guide?” Natsu managed at least. It was kind of obvious, but he wanted to hear it from Gray anyway. 

____

Gray nervously rubbed his neck with his hand. 

____

“Ah... Yes... I always kept it hidden, wasn’t keen to have this government idiots annoying me. But since they figured it out now, I guess there’s no point in keeping it to myself anylonger... I... Do you mind?” 

____

At that, Natsu blinked confused. “Why would I mind?” 

____

Gray shrugged, visibly more relaxed now that his worry proved to be obviously unnecessary. “Well, there are many who make a fuss over it, when they find out that someone is a Guide or Sentinel. Many start to treat them differently, either deliberately or unconsciously. Maybe Guides have it easier, still, but with Sentinels... There are just too many prejudices,” he sighed, at which Natsu could only nod, understanding. 

____

“Hey... Could we meet somewhere later? I need to speak with you about something, well, ask you something,” Natsu wanted to know. With this topic, a bit of privacy probably wouldn’t be bad. 

____

He earned a slightly confused but curious look from the ice mage. 

____

“O-Okay... Then I come over lat–...” Gray’s answer was cut off, when the doors of the guild were pushed open and three government officials walked in. 

____

~~~ 

____

“Is Gray Fullbuster here?” one of them, tall and broad with dark hair, shouted into the room, whereupon all heads turned to him. 

____

Grinding his teeth, Gray stood up and walked over to them, while he sensed Natsu’s gaze on his back. 

____

“What do you want here? If it’s about this recruiting bullshit again, then you can fuck off! I told you a thousand times that I’m not interested!” he snapped annoyed and crossed his arms in front of his naked chest. 

____

“Mr Fullbuster, both Guides and Sentinels have an advantage over normal people because of their special genetically determined abilities and therefore carry a greater responsibility. We have many unbounded Sentinels in our ranks who really could use the support of a professional Guide. You of all people, not only a Guide, but also an extremely strong mage, could be of great use to us. Don’t you feel any urge to serve your country?” pressed a second official, now of an average high and blond. 

____

They couldn’t be serious, could they? Taking a deep breath, Gray tried to contain his anger. 

____

“First of all, as far as I know it isn’t mandatory for Sentinels and Guides to commit themselves to the army of the government. And secondly, if you claim again that we don’t do anything for Fiore, you will be ice sculptures before you can say ‘recruiting’! If you’ll excuse me...” With these words, he went to walk past the government officials to the exit. He clearly felt the confusion of his comrades, that he was a Guide, but also the invariably agreement to his words and on the other hand the anger of the officials. In the heat of the argument and because of his fury, Gray had lost the control over his shields, and with them down his empathy abilities hit him full force without a buffer. 

____

~~~ 

____

Meanwhile, Natsu had watched the happenings furiously. These fucking... How dare they? But apart from his anger, he couldn’t deny being proud of Gray. Yes, his Guide doesn’t just let himself be ordered around. 

____

Wait... _His _Guide? Since when did he regard Gray as his Guide?__

______ _ _

Confused for a moment, Natsu realized what was different. Gray had taken down his mental shields, now he could clearly recognize him as Guide. As his Guide. All the feelings he had had for Gray and which he’d tried to deny suddenly made sense. Secretly he’d always wanted to be near to him, in a fight he always worried first about Gray and only then about his other comrades, he trusted him the most and felt the most comfortable and safe in his presence. Natsu had never understood, had tried to cover it up with fights and arguments. But if Gray was his Guide, it was only logical that he viewed him differently than the rest of the guild. 

______ _ _

Natsu watched Gray passing by the government officials when he noticed how one of them wanted to grab his arm and hold onto him. 

______ _ _

A deep, threatening growl escaped his throat. And not only him, also his spirit animal, which had manifested between Gray and the official and was now standing protectively in front of the ice mage. 

______ _ _

With a surprised shout, the official flinched away from the wolf that had suddenly appeared in front of him. While spirit animals couldn’t really harm anyone seriously, they could give someone quite a scare. Especially since they normally only showed themselves to their partners, sometimes to other Guides and Sentinels and practically never to normal humans. If it came to the latter case you could be sure that the belonging Guide or Sentinel was deadly serious. Everyone present watched the spectacle in front of them with open mouths and wide eyes. 

______ _ _

“What...?” Gray asked confused, right before his own spirit animal, a snow leopard, showed up next to Natsu’s wolf to lend them his support. 

______ _ _

With few quick steps Natsu was at Gray’s side and hissed angrily at the government officials. “Don’t touch my Guide!” 

______ _ _

For a moment still confused, eventually it seemed to also click for Gray and he instinctively positioned himself closer to his Sentinel. 

______ _ _

For a few seconds the silence is absolute, while the ones present tried to process what the hell was going on. 

______ _ _

“What? Another unregistered?! And the salamander as Sentinel at that? How dare you withhold your abilities from the government?” uttered the blond official outraged. 

______ _ _

Gray really didn’t like to hear that. Nobody threatened his Sentinel! His snow leopard bared his teeth threateningly to emphasize Gray’s words. 

______ _ _

“Counterquestion: How do YOU dare to speak with my Sentinel like that? It was his right not to register; nothing obliges him to do it. I advise you to leave now before somebody does something he maybe would regret later.” 

______ _ _

The blond wanted to start protesting when he was stopped by the third official, a short, blue-haired man. 

______ _ _

“Just leave it be, a Sentinel/Guide relationship is nothing to be trifled with, and especially not with these two. I apologize for our obtrusive behaviour, we will leave now,” the blue-haired one addressed first his comrade, then Gray and Natsu. 

______ _ _

The two gave a short nod in thanks and stepped a bit to the side to make way for the officials. 

______ _ _

But the blond didn’t seem to have accepted this outcome. Right before they were out of the guild, Natsu heard it, but was too far away in order to prevent it. He had just enough time to curse himself for not noticing sooner because his senses were too focused on Gray, before a metallic click resonated and an object was thrown into the room. 

______ _ _

A loud bang and unbelievable bright light, then nothing but darkness. 

______ _ _

~~~ 

______ _ _

“Are you all alright?” Gray asked when he slowly came to and regained his sense of direction. Affirmative murmurs answered him, many were covering their still hurting ears, but that aside they seemed okay. Everyone but one. Natsu was still lying motionless on the ground and concerned, Gray knelt beside him. One glance and he knew what was going on. 

______ _ _

“Shit... This fucking...,” he cursed and carefully hoisted Natsu up in his arms. 

______ _ _

“Gray, what’s... Is Natsu alright?” he heard Lisanna asking concerned, whereupon he gave a short glance at her. 

______ _ _

“Because of this damn magic flashbang, that this guy had requipped and thrown, he zoned out. When I get my hands on these fuckers, they’ll be in for it!” he answered furiously and worried. “I get him up in the infirmary to have a bit of peace and see what I can do to bring him back.” With these words he zigzagged past his guild mates, who looked after him worried. He could sense how Natsu’s zoning out scared some of them, not everyone had gotten in contact with it before and if you’re not used to it, it could be pretty creepy. But he had more important things to do than placating them. 

______ _ _

With one well aimed kick he opened one of the doors of the infirmary and laid Natsu carefully on the bed before closing the door again and sitting down next to his Sentinel. 

______ _ _

He still couldn’t quite believe that Natsu was his, that he of all people was a Sentinel. But he couldn’t deny that in a way it made sense, at least it explained his feelings for Natsu that always were a bit different than these for his other friends. Neither could he deny that he kind of liked the thought of them belonging together. He was always a bit sceptical of the thought of binding himself to a Sentinel – or even just to work with one. He couldn’t imagine to work with someone whom he didn’t trust or who’d want to order him around. But if it was Natsu it was different. He regularly trusted him with his life, they always were on an equal footing and he couldn’t imagine that this would change even with the Sentinel/Guide element thrown in the mix. 

______ _ _

He lifted his hand and gently cupped Natsu’s cheek before sending out calming empathic waves through the touch and quietly speaking to him. 

______ _ _

“Hey, Natsu. Can you hear me? Come on, wake up. Concentrate on my hand on your cheek, take in my scent, listen to my voice. Use all your senses and come back, okay? You can do it, I know you can. You are my Sentinel after all.” He continued whispering sweet nothings in Natsu’s ear for some time and waited patiently until his words would reach him. 

______ _ _

His patience was rewarded after a while when he felt Natsu returning to him and slowly beginning to move. Gray wasn’t deterred and continued, until he fully brought Natsu up from his zoning out and his eyes were cleared from their foggy state and were fixating on him. 

______ _ _

“Gray, what...?” Natsu began, when he grabbed his head and sat up. “Damn, I was zoning out, wasn’t I?” it dawned on him quickly. 

______ _ _

“Yeah. You were triggered from this flashbang that one of these bastards had thrown,” Gray confirmed with a nod while still making sure to keep his voice low. He didn’t need to overload Natsu’s Sentinel-hearing unnecessarily. “Are you alright?” 

______ _ _

“Yeah... Yeah, I think so. Thank you for pulling me up. How long was I...?” Natsu asked. 

______ _ _

“About 15 minutes,” Gray immediately answered, at which Natsu sighed with relief. That was a clear difference to the other times he’d zoned out lately. “Hey, Natsu... can I ask you something?” After an inviting hand gesture, Gray continued. “Was this the reason why you behaved so weird lately? Because you awakened as a Sentinel?” 

______ _ _

Natsu was silent for a while and slowly tilted his head thoughtfully from left to right, not sure how to answer this best. 

______ _ _

“Yes and no. I already awoke as Sentinel when I was a kid, when I still lived together with Igneel. He knew about Sentinels and Guides and taught me everything I needed to know to control my senses as best you can. That’s why I never registered later; the SG-Centres wouldn’t have been of any use for me – leaving aside the fact that I never really liked their closeness to the government. It was the same for you, I believe. Anyway, I never had many problems with zoning out, it was so rare that it never really affected me. But a month or so ago my senses started to act up. It happened more and more that I would lose control and that they’d overwhelm me, so lately I was constantly zoning out. I knew I couldn’t take my usual jobs like this, that’s why I had to switch to these bore-missions for the time being. And the absence from the guild... Well, it increasingly became unbearable loud for me, so I couldn’t stand it for very long. I knew that if my senses wouldn’t calm down by themselves – which didn’t happen yet – the only solution would be to find a Guide who can support me. I scouted the registered Guides in our vicinity after I secretly looked through the lists in a SG-Centre, but I haven’t found anyone who would match me, aside from the fact that I’d need to trust them first. Well... And then I learned earlier that you are a Guide, too, and wanted to ask you later in private if you’d mind to help me out at least during missions and keep an eye on me. But then these guys were there, you take down your shields, something clicked in my head and I just couldn’t see them near you any longer... Sorry that I pronounced this in front of everyone, if you’re uncomfortable with it, we of course don’t have to bond or whatever... It... We could just continue like before, if you want...,” Natsu explained the situation and finally finished with an unsure stammer. 

______ _ _

Gray on the other hand had listened attentively and couldn’t help but to hit him over the head in the end. 

______ _ _

“You’re such an idiot! Why didn’t you say anything? Zoning out with no control is nothing to take lightly! I’m glad you at least had the sense to cut down the missions!” 

______ _ _

“I... I... I’m sor...” But Gray interrupted Natsu’s stammer by pulling him into a hug. He knew how emotional instable Sentinels could be after zoning out, especially if it was a Guide who was angry at them. Guides were normally considered quite balanced, that’s why it said all the more if a Guide was truly angry. Nobody wanted to witness an angry Guide, least of all Sentinels, if the anger was directed at them. 

______ _ _

But at the moment, Gray was less angry and more worried, and even if Natsu would recognize this normally, he wasn’t able to in his momentary condition, so Gray made his point of view clear with the hug. 

______ _ _

This had an immediate effect on Natsu, who visibly relaxed and leant into the touch, his nose buried into Gray’s neck to deeply inhale his scent. 

______ _ _

“That being said,” Gray continued, “I would be happy to work with you as your Guide and to help you with your hypersensitive senses. And I think I also could imagine to bond with you in the future, even if I think I have to become accustomed to this situation first. Let us take it slowly, step by step, okay?” 

______ _ _

As an answer, Gray felt how the lips on his neck turned up in a smile and Natsu wrapping his arms around him. 

______ _ _

“Okay.” 

______ _ _

~~~ 

______ _ _

At the request of Natsu they stayed in the infirmary for a while longer so he could compose himself a bit. Gray happily obliged, the concern for Natsu still there and he didn’t want to risk Natsu zoning out a second time. Eventually, the fire mage moved a bit away from Gray and after an exchange of glances they returned down to the guild hall. 

______ _ _

When they arrived it was obvious for them how worried the others must have been the whole time. Everything happened so fast that they could barely process it. And now, when the others watched their friends coming out of the infirmary again, Gray and Natsu noticed how they were holding themselves back to not just swarm them immediately – aside from Happy even successfully, the exeed had tackled Natsu in the chest the moment he saw him, where Natsu embraced him reassuringly. Gray thanked them mentally, he wasn’t sure how much Natsu could take at the moment, and he pulled his Sentinel a little closer to him while he’d wrapped his arm around his waist. 

______ _ _

“How are you?” broke Erza eventually the silence, who examined Natsu with a warm but slightly concerned look. 

______ _ _

He gave her a smile. “I’m doing okay, don’t worry.” 

______ _ _

“Oh my god, you scared me so much! Suddenly you were just lying on the ground and weren’t moving and...,” Lisanna rambled shakily and you could hear similar words from Lucy and some others. 

______ _ _

“I’m sorry, I...” Natsu started, but Gray interrupted him before he got all worked up about some nonsense. 

______ _ _

“Natsu, you don’t have to apologize, that wasn’t your fault!” 

______ _ _

The dragon slayer wanted to protest, but a stern look from Gray caused him to shut his mouth again and to nod yieldingly. 

______ _ _

“Sooo... You and Gray as Sentinel and Guide, eh? I don’t even know anymore, why I’m still being surprised about such things...,” Makarov chuckled. “And before you ask: That doesn’t change anything about you being children of this guild, we don’t care about all the prejudices!” he continued straightaway, wanted to smother any thoughts about unacceptability that might surface in their heads, especially in Natsu’s, right away. Sure enough, he was instantly rewarded with a relieved look from Natsu and a thankful smile and matching words from both mages. 

______ _ _

“Eeeh? Why should it make a difference, if they are a Sentinel or Guide?” Happy asked confused and looked blankly up at Natsu. 

______ _ _

“You see...There are many out there who don’t understand their abilities and therefore are especially afraid of Sentinels and because of that they segregate and are hostile towards them. Some call them monsters and attack them, even if they haven’t done anything,” Lucy explained to the blue exeed, whose eyes widened in horror. 

______ _ _

“But Natsu isn’t a monster! And Gray, too!” he answered outraged, which put a smile on Lucy’s face and that of the others. 

______ _ _

“We know that, Happy! They are as much our friends as before.” 

______ _ _

“So... Since that is settled, what about our Team? Are you coming on missions again, now that you have Gray as Guide?” Erza asked eventually, as always asking the important questions. 

______ _ _

“Wah...? But wouldn’t that be much too dangerous for Natsu-san? What happens if he begins to zone out in the middle of a fight?” Wendy asked worried, what resulted in a few more uneasy looks towards Natsu. 

______ _ _

The fire mage exchanged glances with Gray and they seemed to communicate without words. Eventually he turned towards his other friends again. 

______ _ _

“I... I think, it should be okay as long as Gray stays near me. But we want to take it slow for the time being and to increase the difficulty level step by step to test the waters safely. Apart from that we’ll need to get used to each other anyway, our teamwork between us as Sentinel and Guide will be slightly different than we’re used to from earlier missions.” 

______ _ _

~~~ 

______ _ _

After this tumultuous events and rather serious conversation it wasn’t long before the Fairy Tail mages did, what they did best. No, not destroying buildings or whole districts, the other one – partying! 

______ _ _

Natsu was well and with his missions it would also begin to go back to normal. And on top of that they had a new as-good-as-couple in the guild. Even if there were different opinions about if they really would end as a couple – bets were already placed, if their bond would be remain platonic or becoming more –, but it was obvious that Natsu and Gray would become much closer in the future than they currently were. 

______ _ _

And if that wasn’t enough, the blue haired government official from before stopped by a few hours later to announce that the blonde, who had thrown the magical flashbang, was arrested and would be psychiatrically looked after in the future. After first investigations it became apparent that he had extreme control mania, which led to him only accepting Sentinels and Guides if they worked under him. He held the opinion that everyone else was a danger to the society and therefore must be getting rid of – one way or another. 

______ _ _

The mages duly noted this news very pleased, especially Gray, since this guy was to blame for Natsu’s zoning out after all. 

______ _ _

And so everyone was partying far into the early morning until the whole guild eventually slept off their drunkenness on the floor of the guild, whereby Gray and Natsu had retreated onto one of the infirmary beds and were snuggled close together, one arm wrapped around the other protectively in their sleep. 

______ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo... how did you like it? I'd love to hear your opinion, since this was kind of a heart project for me and I'm thinking about continuing this as a series with various oneshots. Would someone be interested in that? Or do you say "No, this isn't really my cup of tea, one oneshot was okay but I don't really need more"?
> 
> Also, because of my influence from other fics being set in the "normal world" (already mentioned above), I also kind of only thought of mammals (preferably predators) and raptors like eagles or hawks as spirit animals. I'm aware now, that I easily could've used a Wyvern or something as Natsu's spirit animal (I think I wouldn't use a dragon, since they are too... naturally intelligent for spirit animals for me, too far away from "animals", the same goes for exeeds (in comparison to normal cats)), but oh well... There are many different animals anyway, that I've could used as the spirit animals for Gray and Natsu, based on which trait of them I want to focus on. So if you think that another animal would have been better, it's absolutely okay for me, I always change my opinion about this matter, too. If you want, you're welcome to share your ideas in the comments, I'm curious about it ^^  
> As for my choice of animals: I think the snow leopard should be self-explanatory, with snow and ice-make magic... I chose the wolf for Natsu because I liked to lay the focus on Natsu as a really family orientated human (okay, with this locig practically the whole guild would have a wolf as a spirit animal, but whatever xD) and wolves normally live in packs; they are at their strongest when they are together with their pack, but also strong on their own. I could have used as easily a feline for Natsu too, because I think from another angle his character matches more that of a cat than a "dog" (I know that wolves are different from dogs, but you know what I mean), like, he's really stubborn and doesn't like to follow orders and so on. But again, I think it just depends on what trait you want to focus on, there are many, many options you could choose... Gray with a wolf would've also been nice, I think^^  
> What do you think about my choice of spirit animals? Can you understand my reasoning or do you think this choices were just a big mistake? Which animals would you have chosen for them?
> 
> And while we're at the random facts: In this universe I headcanon, that the other dragonslayer are either dormant Sentinels (maybe with some Guides in the mix, too) or at least partial Sentinels (when only one, two, tree... senses are enhanced, but not all of them). What do you think of this idea?


End file.
